Aloha Parent Guide

From a balance sheet, Aloha looks like it should have worked. Bradley Cooper is fresh off his intoxicating ride (and Oscar nomination) as Chris Kyle in the hugely successful American Sniper. Emma Stone recently reprised her role as Gwen in The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Rachel McAdams has a growing resume of solid performances (Sherlock Holmes, Midnight in Paris, About Time) and John Krasinski has established himself as a bankable star (Promised Land, It’s Complicated). The film’s location isn’t a distraction either.

However, the movie stumbles along like a drunk trying to find his footing.

Bradley Cooper plays Brian Gilcrest, a defense contract with a shady past whot suffered a serious injury in the Middle East conflict. After mostly recovering (he still has a limp), Brian is sent home to Hawaii to help inaugurate the building of a new space launch site owned by wealthy businessman Carson Welsh (Bill Murray).

However, negotiating with the natives isn’t the only thing on Brian’s mind. Tracy Woodside (Rachel McAdams) lives on the island with her husband Woody (John Krasinski) and their two children (Danielle Rose Russell, Jaeden Lieberher). It has been a long time since Brian suddenly disappeared out of Tracy’s life. Reconnecting with her gives him a chance to decide if there is still a spark between them that merits rekindling.

That could easily have been enough drama to take up the movie’s runtime. Yet there is more. When Brian lands at the military base, he is assigned a young jet fighter pilot to be his liaison. It seems like a lower ranking officer, or at least a less specialized one, could have just as easily filled the role of babysitter. However Captain Allison Ng (Emma Stone) is given the task of handler. And that means Brian soon has not one, but two love interests to juggle.

Aloha also addresses some politically hot topics like the turning of space exploration over to private billionaires who may or may not play by the rules. In this case, Carson abides by the latter. As well, the script throws in some Hawaiian legends, a precocious, aspiring documentarian who makes a disturbing discovery, and a disgruntled tribe that still despises the interlopers who arrived on their island centuries ago. And local military leaders, depicted as inept, make the besmirched Brian the only one capable of saving the day.

Given all the bits and pieces the story tries to include it’s no wonder the plot trips up as it meanders between romance and drama. Instead, this production seems to prove that even if you appear to have all the right pieces, things won’t always puzzle together to make a great picture.

About author

Kerry Bennett

Kerry Bennett is interested in media from both a journalist and parent perspective. Along with authoring articles for several family-oriented publications, she has written for Parent Previews for over 15 years. As a parent herself, she believes parents play a powerful role in teaching media literacy in their homes.